About: Hedgehog

Posts by Hedgehog:

Having just returned from a few days away in York, I wanted to comment on York Minster. I mentioned on a similar post last year that family holidays don’t seem complete without at least one visit to a place of worship. York Minster is particularly spectacular, and is the largest Gothic cathedral in northern Europe. […]

What’s the most useful thing you’ve learned from a magazine? The LDS church publishes four magazines monthly: the Ensign aimed at adults, the New Era for youth, the Friend for children, and the Liahona a combined magazine which is available in 47 languages. The format and content has changed over the years, sometimes for the […]

Following the completion of this year’s programme, the seminary students in our ward were asked to speak in sacrament meeting. My daughter just turned 15, and this was her first year of seminary. I was so impressed by her talk that I asked her permission to post it here. I have been asked to give […]

On the 7 June the Europe Area Conference for northern Europe (the UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland) was Broadcast from Edinburgh, Scotland to 56 stakes and 4 districts. Elder Jeffrey R Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve presided, and the session was conducted by Elder Clifford T Herbertson of the Seventy. Elder […]

Raising children in a mixed faith environment, or where one parent practices a religion and the other does not, can be a challenge at the best of times. It’s something that requires mutual respect, and a willingness to both communicate and compromise. It’s to be hoped that it is something that would be discussed prior […]

How important is the Sabbath to you? At our recent stake conference the visiting area authority 70, Elder Charles, spoke about the Sabbath*. He told us that in a change to previous practise, those assigned to attend stake conferences had been assigned the topic by the Brethren, and that in an increasingly secular world, our […]

“Principles compatible with the gospel are found in the platforms of all major political parties. While the Church does not endorse political candidates, platforms, or parties, members are urged to be full participants in political, governmental, and community affairs.” (mormon.org) During one Institute discussion group back in my student days the Institute director told us […]

Do you have a garden, plant one, and how successful are you? Do you prefer to grow in pots? Green fingers are not a talent I possess, and I can’t say gardening is something I enjoy. My only really successful crops over the years have been tomatoes. There were plenty of them, and as the […]

Do you pray out loud in private? And why? That’s one of the things I was left pondering at the end of the Priesthood session. Vocal prayer was something mentioned in two of the talks given: “Let’s examine your Aaronic Priesthood duties as described in section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants. Be sensitive to […]

Today and tomorrow the case brought by Gareth Lee, a volunteer with the Queer Space collective, supported by the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland against Asher’s Bakery supported by The Christian Institute is to be heard in court. So far as I can tell, this particular cake differs from similar cases in the US in […]

The stories we hear and are surrounded by frame our world, influence our outlook and understanding. They affect our sense of who we are, and our place in the world. They can broaden our horizons, or keep us to a narrow focus. What do the stories we find in our lesson manuals and church magazines […]

What works for one won’t necessarily work for all. I’ve been following the comments on Hawkgrrrl’s recent post about dating with interest, particularly in light of Elder Holland’s recent address to the CES folk. The relevant portions of his speech, in which he raises a number of reasons why our young people may be delaying […]

I’ve become aware that it is now seems to be more common for wards to be combined to form a single unit. This is something that has happened to my own ward recently. I am so happy. And apparently we’re not the only stake where this is happening. It was only last year that I […]

In some wards sacrament meeting is held first and in others it is the last meeting of the 3 hour block. There is always that time when everyone is coming in to be seated, greeting those they haven’t spoken to yet that day, chatting amongst themselves and the accompanist for the meeting, be they organist […]

I’ll admit right at the start, I didn’t serve a mission. And I’m a woman. So I was at the receiving end of neither the expectation nor the condemnation. Still, I have a husband and brothers who served missions, and a nephew currently serving, and the eldest of those brothers has always disliked what he’s […]

Twice I’ve experienced New Year in Japan. It is one of the most important festivals of the year, and the celebration extends over 3 days (1-3 January) public holiday. Like most celebrations it involves prior preparation, the most important of which are “spring” cleaning the home, and preparing the food. With few exceptions the food […]

“What would Christmas be without a Carol?” was a line from one of the songs in a BBC R4 festive musical drama I listened to as a child together with my siblings. Initially regarded as wholly secular, and stamped upon by the puritans and given new life by the Victorians, carols and other Christmas songs […]

The smell of baking pastry and mincemeat heralds the arrival of Christmas. As a child my first mince pie of Christmas was always December 1st, since there was a family birthday that day. Our tradition was a mince pie each everyday in December thereafter. My mum would bake them in large batches at least twice […]

When did you first hear about polygamy*, and what has your experience been with this topic? What attitudes have you observed? Growing up in the church in here in Britain, non-members would raise the issue of polygamy, as in “Mormon, that’s the religion where the men can have lots of wives”. And we’d then have […]

It was announced Monday that President Henry B. Eyring would be attending “The Complementarity of Man and Woman: An International Colloquium” to be held in the Vatican 17-19 November. From the colloquium website, this is “a gathering of leaders and scholars from many religions across the globe, to examine and propose anew the beauty of […]